Archive for the 'Deltron 3030' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

When Del the Funky Homosapien delivered his tight set of career-spanning tracks at Back 2 Basics in June, the Bay Area MC promised a revival of his decade-plus-defunct project Deltron 3030, a most sought-after return in hip-hop circles.

Granted, whispers about and requests for a reunion of Del with sound-shaping duo Dan the Automator and Kid Koala have somewhat faded over time, as much of the underground scene that birthed the project in 1999 has been abandoned for more commercial endeavors. When a new Deltron album, Event 2, surfaced in late September, it was greeted with a general shrug by anyone outside the group’s core crowd.

But those fans and then some turned up Monday night to nearly fill the Observatory in Santa Ana, and were likely satisfied by what they saw.

The scene was a stark contrast from the older hip-hop heads who checked out that Back 2 Basics performance a few months earlier, and the audience was significantly larger than the gathering Deltron drew at Rock the Bells this past summer, which unfortunately found them competing against wildly popular A$AP Rocky and his mob on the main stage. Monday’s attendees weren’t so easily identifiable as belonging to a particular subculture; the room was packed with men and women of different races, styles and ages, including some teens who treated the headliners like they were, well, the kind of hallowed act that takes 13 years to make an album.

The fact that runaway smash Night Visions is one of those rare debuts that has actually sold a million copies in the U.S. is proof enough that Imagine Dragons is the biggest rock band to emerge from Las Vegas since the Killers.

But in case that isn't convincing, add this: the group just booked a headlining gig at the renovated Forum on Valentine's Day.

The Dragons, fronted by Dan Reynolds (above), announced their next North American outing, dubbed the Into the Night Tour, departing from Boise on Feb. 8. In addition to the L.A. stop, they play Feb. 15 at San Diego's Valley View Casino Center. The Naked and Famous open both shows.

The Forum date, $29.50-$54.50, goes on sale Friday, Oct. 11, at 10 a.m., with a pre-sale launching Tuesday at the same time. The San Diego stop, $29.50-$49.50, becomes available Saturday at 10 a.m.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the highly regarded Rock the Bells hip-hop festival, which invades San Bernardino County each year as summer begins to wind down, organizer Guerilla Union decided to take cues from the relative success of Tupac Shakur’s hologram appearance during Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s Coachella performances last year.

Saturday night saw N.W.A rapper Eazy-E fleetingly resurrected to join Cleveland outfit Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, to somewhat lackluster results, while Sunday’s second half at San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore culminated in a virtual performance from the late great Ol’ Dirty Bastard, completing the original nine-man lineup of Staten Island’s finest, Wu-Tang Clan.

Synonymous with the Rock the Bells brand, the Wu in some form has been part of all but one of these festivals, and it was difficult to go more than 10 feet in any direction without seeing socks, T-shirts, headgear, even tattoos all brandishing the group’s insignia, proving the collective’s legacy is firmly in tact. This year marks the 20th anniversary of debut release Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and as its makers took the stage (30 minutes late), the crowd grew fixated, fans echoing lines from classics like “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” and “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F*** Wit.”

While the performance flirted with cheesiness, as was the case with Eazy-E the night before, a smoothly programmed, incredibly vivid digital ODB helped round out some of the ensemble’s most beloved tracks, arguably so vaunted because of the former Russell Jones’ presence. It would be difficult to argue that “Shame on a N****” would be as important to hip-hop had it not been for Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s stanzas. Even more impressive was being able to witness him asking the DJ to drop the beat on “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.”

“Hip-hop used to be about partying,” noted Thes One, a Torrance native and half of the L.A.-based People Under the Stairs. He then lightly mocked more cause-concerned groups, of which there were not many at the top of the bill for Back 2 Basics, a sold-out gathering held in both the main room of the Observatory and in the Santa Ana venue's smaller Constellation Room.

Party the audience did: there was a particularly staggering and slurring tendency among attendees before the sun had even set, and the event seemed like a massive success as a revenue generator, with pockets leaving empty from an array of purchases, booze to merch to BBQ. If partying was the “basics,” then this crowd certainly was game to go back there.

But a little more than a week out before new albums arrive from Kanye West (his looks to be anything but a party) and J Cole – and with a host of great hip-hop shows due at the same venue this summer, including Chief Keef and a stacked bill of Mac Miller, Chance the Rapper and Action Bronson – this night felt like just a party. Artists 10 years past their peak fed off nostalgia that overshadowed their historical places as genre also-rans, with the influence of the underground '90s scene appearing to mean little at present.

Headliner Dilated Peoples still drew devoted fans who screamed from the front of the pit, holding their spot for hours to get a prime view of their favorite. And though the two-MCs-one-DJ combo has a new LP on the way – Directors of Photography, due this year on Rhymesayers – their previous offering has seven years of dust on it. That's an extreme example of a general B2B theme: these once up-and-coming, future-of-hip-hop acts have been replaced by new rising stars without ever having achieved much notability outside the scene from which they sprang.

DMX and Eve at Rock the Bells in San Bernardino. Photo: David Hall, for the Register. Click the pic for more.

For the first time in nine incarnations, hip-hop's Mecca festival, Rock the Bells, expanded to two days, the first of its three regional events taking place Aug. 18-19 in Satan's Sauna, San Bernardino's frustratingly hot NOS Events Center. (The fest hits Mountain View this weekend and Holmdel, N.J. just before Labor Day.)

Another big change: Alongside RTB veterans such as Nas, Common and various Wu-Tang Clan members, this year's roster embraced a significant number of more radio-ready acts – most notably J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Tyga, 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa. All of them are more likely to turn up at a Powerhouse at Honda Center than this traditionally underground-focused bash.

Organizers claimed they wanted to construct a lineup that fulfilled an old-school-meets-new-school theme. But given that Day 1 comprised mostly maainstream players and Day 2 predominantly underground and classic artists, it's debatable whether that goal was actually met.

Regardless, what was achieved amid that milieu was what Rock the Bells does best: draw in rare performances and reunions that continue to solidify it as the world's highest-tier hip-hop and rap gathering.